Month: May 2018

“You know, we’ve been on a lot of adventures together so far,” I told Sam at some point in our recent travels. It is true, and we both feel incredibly blessed for all the wonderful adventures we have been able to experience together so far in our marriage.

Our most recent adventure was a trip to Moldova to visit some friends. Moldova is a small country to the northwest of Romania, which was at one point a part of Romania. The official national language of Moldova is Romanian, which is nice for Sam and me, but previously the national language was Russian and many people still speak it, which neither of us understands. Thankfully our hosts spoke perfect English, which is always a blessing for us.

Our journey began Friday afternoon as we took a Blabla car to the Bucharest train station, which is about a three-hour trip from Craiova. Our driver dropped us off at the edge of town, so we walked to the nearby metro station and rode the Romanian subway to the train station. I had packed us a picnic supper and we ate at the train station while we waited for our train, and at 7:00 we boarded a sleeper train headed for Chisinau, Moldova.

My first time on a train of any sort was when I first moved to Romania, and this was my first experience on a sleeper train. Sam and I had our own little room with two benches and a small table. We opened the window and read and studied for a while, and before long we began to try to go to sleep. Neither of us slept much, but it was enough to feel rested, and much better than sitting upright all night. We crossed the Romanian/Moldovan border at 3:00 a.m. and we had to go through passport control and customs right there on the train. It was a good experience, but we were very thankful when we arrived in Chisinau.

We had a wonderful few days with our friends in Moldova. Actually, we had never met these friends in person before, but it is amazing how God’s perfect plan for His family brings so many people together and we are able to have common fellowship through Christ.

Monday afternoon we boarded the train again to return to Romania, and we arrived in Bucharest at 6:00 a.m. We got coffee at a McDonalds in the train station and read, studied, and began our morning at a table at McDonalds. We didn’t have any food left, so we walked to a grocery store to buy some fruit and bread for breakfast, then we walked to the Palace of Parliament.

The Palace of Parliament was begun by the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu, but not completed before his assassination in 1989, and it is one of the largest buildings in the world. We took a tour of the palace and we were amazed at all the ornate details, marble, gold, and the massive size of everything. I was intrigued to learn that 99% (or more) of the materials for building were sourced from Romania.

After our tour we ate lunch at an Indian restaurant. Our first date was to an Indian restaurant in Tampa, FL, and we both love Indian food. We were quite pleased to find a place to get some in Bucharest!

We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening studying at a coffee shop and visiting a friend from Bucharest before heading to the airport!

Part of my family arrived last night for a two-week visit to Romania! Daddy will join us next week. We had night filled with more adventures in a taxi, on the train, and again on another taxi before we finally arrived home, thankful and exhausted.

“I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth.” I Corinthians 3:6

We know that God is the one who causes growth; He is the one who gives the increase, but it is sometimes easy to be discouraged when we do not see apparent growth or increase.

We have lived in Craiova for almost six months, and as of now the church has no new members and no regular visitors. We have events and studies, but often no one comes. Sam passes out hundreds and thousands of flyers, posts countless posters, and we advertise regularly online, but the results we have seen are few.

And it is easy to get discouraged.

It is hard for me to see Sam work so tirelessly every day, studying diligently, coming up with new ideas and methods for reaching people, and getting out of his comfort zone to get out and talk to strangers in a country where he is unfamiliar with the culture and unaccustomed to the language, and not be discouraged for his sake. Sometimes I think, “Don’t these people see how passionate he is and how hard he is working? Why won’t they respond?” But I know this is the wrong way to think. I am thinking too much in physical terms, expecting to see a tangible result of spiritual efforts. No amount of effort on our parts will force people to make the decision to turn their lives to Christ; that is up to them and God. All we can do is keep diligently sowing the seed and give the rest to God.

The gospel is still growing in Craiova, whether or not we see the results with our eyes. We have heard countless stories of conversions that resulted from a single small seed planted years ago. With so many seeds planted all over the city, from flyers to posters, to events and conversations, we pray that one day one of these seeds will grow in someone’s heart and prompt them to turn to God for help and salvation.

Yet even if one of these seeds does not take root, the gospel is still growing. Sam and I have both grown so much from this experience, and we continue to learn every day. We are learning to rely on God and His timing, not our own plans and ideas of success.

And He is causing the growth.

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